Reading warnings when installing multiple ports

[Jerry McAllister]

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 03:05:38PM +0200, Mel Flynn wrote:

> On Saturday 16 May 2009 21:21:54 Jerry McAllister wrote:
> > > > > > Sometimes I get a question in the middle of an install that I do
> > > > > > not know how to answer and it is an awfully inconvenient time to
> > > > > > have to start scrounging for information.    Having a commannd that
> > > > > > would display all those things and maybe some related information
> > > > > > or pointers to information for making an intelligent response -
> > > > > > before starting the make -  would be very helpful.
> > > > >
> > > > > Do you have specific examples? Cause I can't think of anything that
> > > > > falls under your description.
> > > >
> > > > Hello All,
> > > >
> > > > I had a recent experience with editors/openoffice.org-2.  Based on past
> > > > experience I know that the compile would take a few hours.  I started
> > > > make and left to do some chores.  When I returned I discovered that the
> > > > program had aborted as I did not have java installed and had to
> > > > download a patch from the Sun website.
> > >
> > > This can and will not ever be fixed, because it's a legal and not a
> > > technical issue.
> > > Once you know this, you know to install diablio-jdk first, which takes
> > > 5-10 minutes pending download speed.
> >
> > Yes, I know it is a legal/license issue at Sun and I sort of know to do
> > it now, having installed OO a couple of times.   But, the point was and is,
> > it would help people if the information about having to do it would
> > come up right at the first, so a person could have it taken care of
> > instead of starting an install which one knows will take hours so
> > leaves to do something else and comes back and finds the install
> > stopped hours ago because of something that could have and should
> > have been taken care of before actually starting the install.
> 
> JDK's should really set IS_INTERACTIVE if distfiles that are not available 
> cannot be downloaded without user intervention (MAINTAINER cc'd because of 
> this). This would signal portmaster to present you with a message before 
> starting the build and letting you go about your business.
> 
> If your ports management software does not recurs through all configuration 
> dialogs before starting the build, you're not using the right tool for the 
> job.
> 
> > Some variation of this, often involving entering a 'y' or 'n' at
> > some point in the middle of an install that could have been done
> > causing an environmental variable or some such to be set ahead of
> > time exists in a number of ports I have installed.   It is annoying
> > to come back from a bunch of tiring meetings only to see that an
> > install that could be finished has several more hours to run because
> > it was waiting all that time for a y or n.
> 
> This is where -DBATCH comes in. It silences all those. The ones that aren't 
> silenced and aren't legal issues, should be considered bugs. Various ports 
> management tools also support "automatic answer" features. Without ports 
> management software you can always run yes|make -DBATCH.

That is one thing to do, but, the answer is not absolutely always 'y'.   

Advanced information is still desirable.

////jerry


> 
> -- 
> Mel
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